Project: Legend
by bluebear77100
Summary: Final book of a trilogy. Continuing RE5 AU. OCs, old/newer game characters. The story begins six years after the second book's epilogue, past chapters included. The present year is 2018. In the past, viruses leaked to the black market. In the present, bio-weapon threats are at an all time low. The existence of an old project comes to light, a revelation humanity may not survive.
1. A Place Where all Stories End

_**Chapter 1**_

**-A Place Where all Stories End-**

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><p><em>Boulder, Colorado<em>

Things weren't supposed to be this way. At 26 years old, Eva Jane Wesker had hoped to be married with a family. She'd only managed to get part of that right. Her straight blonde hair had grown long, cascading down over her shoulders, and gradually she allowed her outfits to change from more than just black and zero other color. She still wasn't very good with variety but she didn't feel she needed to be. Like at the moment, she was wearing a typical outfit of hers which included a black leather jacket that reached to her knees. Other than the jacket, everything else was anything but black. She wore a white tank top with thin straps under the jacket, tan pants, and blue and white sneakers. Oh, and her necklace.

A hand moved up to clasp the diamond choker around her neck. The item was expensive, priceless really, an heirloom of his deceased mother. Blue eyes glistened with tears which she fought desperately to hold back. So much time had passed and yet she wasn't nearly over it. "It" being the death of one Chris Redfield, the giver of her necklace. The man had given it to her, despite her protests against receiving such a beautiful object, after the first time they were intimate with one another, the first time they'd made love. A spur of the moment happening and yet he had had the item on him. He'd been carrying it and Eva realized then that he had been thinking about her all the time they were apart as she had been thinking of him.

Age just hadn't seemed to matter any longer. Not after they discovered and felt the deep connection between them after all the years spent apart. It was like they had always been meant to be together. She wasn't sure if she believed in that kind of thing, "soulmates", but Eva couldn't deny the intense closeness she felt to Chris. Had felt, past tense. He was gone now. He'd been gone for a long time. In three months it would be six years.

Her fingers reached forward and traced the date of birth and then the date of death carved in the stone slab she knelt before. The date of death was what really stood out for her. '_August 15, 2012.'_ If anyone saw the grave with the years 1973 to 2012, they would have figured he'd lived to the age of 39. No one would ever suspect that Chris Redfield had ceased aging any longer at the age of 35 after becoming infected with a virus.

The R-Virus or Regenerative virus had halted his physical aging and allowed him to heal from non-mortal wounds faster than any normal human. He had been invincible from death, too, until his run-in with a machine which passed him continuously through time. When he finally landed back in his proper time he was considerably weakened, and by complete accident, learned he could die now like any other human being. The man had retained his healing capabilities and lack of aging but was mortal in the sense that he could be killed. If Eva hoped that would deter the man from getting himself involved in dangerous situations, she had been massively mistaken. And really, she should have known better.

She'd gotten to know him over a span of four months in the year 2009 and had learned of his past during that time. Chris had always been throwing himself into danger in order to save lives and protect the world. Why she thought he would change when he was technically tougher with his ability to say, heal a broken arm in a matter of hours, she didn't know. Eva blamed that belief on her still strong desire to live a normal life. She had hoped when she turned her life into something safer, he would follow. Even though it had been the preferable option, she hadn't held it against him when he told her he planned to continue his vendetta against bio-weapons. He had told her this during the five weeks she'd gotten with him when she'd returned after three years apart. Five weeks, it wasn't nearly enough time.

Tears leaked out from the corners of glassy eyes and she let her hand drop back to her side. She didn't know why she came here. It wasn't like Chris was actually buried in the earth beneath her. There had been no body to bury. But the blood, oh God, the blood. She had reviewed the crime scene photographs over and over, and the blood had been everywhere. It was like someone had drained him of pints and pints of blood, letting him bleed painstakingly slowly to his eventual death. Eva's right hand clenched tight into a fist. If she had any idea, even a hint of who had done this to her love, she would have made it her life's mission to see them dead in turn.

"Eva, hey."

She wiped the fallen tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand quickly and turned to look over her shoulder. Claire Redfield was standing just a yard away, smiling gently down at her. Next to her was Leon S. Kennedy with the generic 'I'm uncomfortable but here for you' type expression on his face. He hadn't known Chris very well but knew how much the man had meant to the significant other in his life, Claire, and of course how close Eva had been to him. Despite his discomfort with the grieving women around him, he came every year with Claire. The decision made to come to his gravestone each year on the anniversary, it was a ritual they'd established pretty much automatically.

They were a little early this year in their visitation because Leon had an upcoming obligation to a new assignment, the details confidential of course. But he'd wanted to be here. Ever since Chris died, Claire and Leon had taken their relationship seriously it would seem. Instead of being on and off like Eva knew they usually were, when Claire's brother died, the two of them had been together ever since. It was a nice thought, a death uniting two people obviously perfect for one another, but she couldn't stop the bitterness that came with the thought either. Claire and Leon got to be together for over five years straight now, and Eva had barely gotten five weeks with Chris before he died. It wasn't fair.

"Hi Claire, Leon."

"Hi Eva," the government agent said to her. "How are you holding up?"

"I am and that has to be enough."

Leon followed her gaze to where it wandered over to a pair of forms sitting in the grass a good three yards behind the grave marker, then he was looking at her again.

"How often have you been coming here, Eva?"

"Does it matter?"

He pushed. "It does."

"Once a month at least."

Eva felt, rather than saw, him come to crouch down beside her. Her gaze was now back on the lettering written across the stone. _'Chris Redfield. Eternally fighting for a better world.'_ She liked the ring to it. Made it seem as though his fight was not over yet and continued on in the afterlife.

"You've gotta stop this. You've got to stop coming here so much."

"Don't tell me what to do."

"It's been nearly six _years_, Eva. He's gone."

Anger flared through her and she shot up onto her feet, fast, spinning around to face him.

"Don't you think I know that? I know. The only man I've ever loved is dead. I know! And I am living the best way I know how!"

She stopped her furious rant abruptly when her gaze momentarily swept past Leon's shoulder. Claire was crying. Silent tears were streaming down her face unrestrained. She ignored them both and walked over to the grave, taking the place Eva only recently abandoned in favor of releasing pent up frustration and grief. Eva stepped more out of her way and lowered her eyes, feeling ashamed for the outburst in such a place as a cemetery.

Her eyes lifted slightly to watch Claire place a bouquet of flowers in front of the grave, next to Eva's own bunch. Eva always went out of her way to find the flowers she brought to him each visit. She felt she could give him nothing less than blue orchids and so there they lay, fresh with color greatly contrasting the dreary gray of the stone it rested against. Without meaning to, she found herself talking out loud what she'd been thinking about after Leon's words to her.

"Every time I come here, I tell myself I won't come again. But I always find myself here in about four weeks. The longest I've ever gone between visits is six weeks. I feel drawn to this place. I don't know why. It's silly, I know that."

"It's not silly, Eva. You're sad and that's perfectly natural. I'm still sad, too."

"Yeah but Leon's right. It has been so long since he died and I can't seem to get past it. I can't seem to accept that he's dead even though I know it's the truth. I know it and yet I feel like he's out there. Like he'll come walking through the door at home at any moment."

"Oh Eva..." Claire trailed off, sympathy evident in her expression.

She quickly switched the subject. "Wesker's been calling me."

"Your dad?" Claire appeared surprised, her big eyes squinting as her forehead creased in a deep frown. "What did he want?"

"I don't know, said something about wanting to talk. I hung up. I don't want to talk to that man and I made it clear for six years that I didn't want to see him. He's always abided by my wishes. Never once has he come around."

Her father, Albert Wesker, had reverted back to his old ways, experimenting on the innocent and working towards the eventual goal of a forced evolution unto mankind. Even while she'd been with him those years ago, fighting to rid the world of Umbrella and then fighting to stop Darius Greene's spiral into insanity that would destroy the world, he'd been working on his plotting already. Eva never wanted people to change from anything than what they were, but she refused to believe Wesker could be truly evil. There had to be some good in him and there had to be a way to make it come out, permanently. The answer to it escaped her right now though. So as of the first time she learned what he was up to about seven years ago, she'd stopped speaking to him much and _never_ told him anything personal. After all, her own father stood for everything the man she loved stood against.

"Okay...?"

Eva could tell the other woman didn't seem sure where she was going with this. She wasn't sure herself so she shook off that train of thinking and just kept talking.

"He's never called me so often though. Maybe he has something important to say, I don't see how... I don't know why I brought it up. Never mind, just forget I said anything."

"If that's what you want," said Claire, looking slightly perturbed.

She hadn't really known why she'd said anything at all. On the days when she came to visit Chris's grave, she was always more vulnerable and open to talking. Otherwise, she was the picture perfect image of closed off and quiet. There were a few people where she worked that she talked to, but steadily Eva had been growing apart from them. It was easier to immerse herself in her work rather than try and pretend she could go to dinner or for a drink with co-workers that could never possibly understand the truth if they ever found it out. And since she'd lost Chris, she had also been taking part in some fieldwork. Fieldwork which her co-workers thought she was crazy for doing. They much preferred the comfort and safety of the lab where they all worked. She couldn't blame them for not understanding, the work outside of the lab kept her busier and her mind more occupied. It was a temporary salvation from her grief.

A powerful cough racked her body, startling even her after coming on so suddenly, and Claire stood to clap a hand against her back.

"Are you okay?"

Eva smothered down the coughs and swallowed, lifting her head back up from where it had come to rest against her chest.

"Yeah, fine. Just a bit of a cold. It's been bothering me for a while. No big deal."

Claire nodded and glanced away before astonishment took over her face. "Leon! Wha-what are you doing?"

The 40-year-old man had moved away from the grave and was now down on one knee, facing Claire. He looked terribly nervous for one who was usually so calm and composed, having faced down numerous horrors during the course of his life. Oh yeah, and the guy held carefully in his hands, a small black box that was opened to reveal a ring. It was an engagement ring. _Holy crap, Leon was proposing!_ The obvious fact rang through Eva's head as she gaped open-mouthed at the man. Leon and Claire had been off and on with their relationship together for years before Chris's death. Eva knew this as she knew not long after Claire's brother died, they seemed to have gotten it together and been a couple for five straight years to date.

Leon was babbling now. "I know, I know, this might seem morbid asking you here in a cemetery of all places, beside your brother's grave no less..."

The much younger of the other two looked on as big blue eyes locked onto Leon's own blue, the pair so obviously in love, lost in one another for a time. She knew what they were both thinking in that moment. They couldn't believe how incredibly lucky they were to have found one another and to be with that person. They were thinking there was no place else in the world they would rather be. Eva had had that once, with Chris. One whole glorious month and a week together. And it had been like they were in their own world the entire time, no distractions, only each other. That was over now and a new love had taken its place. The love, so distinct and powerful, between Claire and Leon.

She watched in amazement as Leon continued on in his proposal speech to Claire, who appeared incapable of removing her gaze from the symbol of a potential permanent future with her significant other.

"But morbid though it may be, it seemed fitting..somehow. Claire, your brother, him dying so suddenly, it just got me thinking. There is a lot of danger in this world, you and I know this better than most. And something could happen at any time. So I don't want to waste another minute not knowing whether we'll end up together or apart. I want to settle this once and for all because I know what I want it to be. I love you, Claire Redfield, and I want to be with you the rest of my life. I'm done being so uncertain of myself and I am ready to..settle down or however it means when... Ugh, what I'm trying to say is that I know I've taken my job before everything else, but not any more."

"Leon..." breathed Claire, eyes shining with tears of joy instead of sorrow which had occupied her so fully not long ago.

"I want to put you first."

"Do you mean that?"

Claire sounded like she wanted to believe.

"Job be damned." Leon declared.

This brought out a laugh from the light-hearted girl. "Well you already know my answer, Leon."

"Yes?"

"There never was any other answer."

"So it's a yes? Please, I need to hear you say it for my own, let's say, peace of mind."

She laughed again and Eva had to stifle her own smile at Leon's suffering over the lack of a definitive response. But she wasn't one to inflict negative feelings on anybody so she soon granted Leon reprieve.

"Yes, of course, yes. I love you, Leon Scott Kennedy. I always have."

He grinned, and instead of waiting to do the regulatory ring on the girl's finger bit, he jumped up and pulled her into his arms. They kissed long and hard, passion evident throughout, causing Eva to flash back to the last time she kissed someone. It had been Chris who was that someone. Naturally it was Chris. There never had been anyone else for her. She'd known it then and she still knew it now. She loved him. More than the world itself she sometimes thought. But she'd held on to herself as an individual and remained in this life for two reasons, two very huge, important, and meaningful reasons.

Reasons that made her aware she couldn't afford to be hell-bent on revenge, against the one or ones who had taken her love away. Her eyes moved off of the happy couple still enveloped into each other, and found the young pair waiting so patiently on the grass a few yards behind Chris's gravestone. They were so quiet and respectful, and at such a very young age. A boy and a girl, each of them five years old. Fraternal twins, her twins, her children.

Far more intelligent than what was normal, even Eva, inexperienced in motherhood as she was, could tell this. The superior intelligence could easily have been inherited from her, but their very demeanor was so peculiar and hard to believe. The only way she could think to put it was that they were wise, seeming to know things that she didn't think children could usually acknowledge and understand. But they did and one of those things was these common visits to the cemetery. Each time she came here she told them they could go and play for a while but every time they instead sat quietly beside one another, waiting until she'd concluded her visit.

Two children, keeping Chris alive by being alive themselves. Children of a man who never got the chance to be a father. He never even had the chance to know he was going to _be_ a father. Eva walked over to Claire and Leon, hugging the now betrothed woman to show she was happy for her new happiness. Then after a little awkward should they or shouldn't they kind of shuffle, she embraced Leon.

"You two are going to be so happy together. This is a good thing. This is a really good thing." Eva told them with a smile after taking a step back from the two.

Then she went over to be with her children and hugged them each in turn for no reason whatsoever that they could probably foresee. But it didn't matter. She just wanted to do it because she could. Because they were real and tangible and she wanted to feel that she could touch them to confirm they remained present and existing. They both accepted the show of affection and it was as though they knew why she needed it.

Her oldest, born three minutes before the other, raised hazel eyes up to regard her. "It's okay, Mommy."

She startled a bit at the words and looked down at her son. "Of course it is, D. Of course everything is okay. Everything is okay."

Eva repeated the phrase, knowing it was more for herself than for either of her children. She chose that moment to regard them both. Her oldest, the male of the family, was the first her eyes lingered over. His name was Donovan Christopher Redfield. The surname had always been of particular liking to her and she couldn't bear to ever use Chris's name on a regular basis so she'd given it to her son as a middle name instead. Not that that had helped much. As the years went by and Donovan got older, more and more he grew to look like the man he would have known as his father. The boy was only five years old but he had the same brown hair and the same brown-green eyes as Chris had. Add to those physical attributes, his expressions resembled Chris's as well, down to the frowning glare whenever he got concerned or upset, that had really become trademark to the deceased father of her children.

But she loved him anyway and eventually learned to look past how much he reminded her of Chris in order to see him by his own identity, as the whole other person he was entirely. He was given the nickname of D from his sister. The two virtually spent all of their time together and one day came to Eva, announcing they were now to be referred to as D and Al. D for Donovan and Al for Aly, her daughter. Her full name was Aly Jane Redfield, named after both of her parents. Of course they hadn't made the nickname request in such a proper and mature manner, the fraternal twins having been four years old at the time. The request had come as a surprise nevertheless but Eva was actually glad to abide by it since that way their real names weren't exposed out in public to anyone who could be watching them, without their best interests in mind. She doubted anyone bothered to keep an eye on her. No one probably knew she existed really, not after Umbrella had faded into the past and to obscurity.

An arm reached out and wrapped around her legs in a sort of tender hold, a soft head coming to rest against her side. Eva lowered her eyes to find her daughter clinging to her and looking at her with an unsure smile. Aly had dark brown hair identical to her brother, barely reaching over thin shoulders. The child had received her mother's eyes though, blue, plus the green of the virus courtesy of her father. Eva continued looking down at her, contemplating how the virus would work in her two children considering so far they had aged normally. Then her daughter saw she had attention and chose the moment to say something.

"Time to go home?"

Eva smiled at her, taking her little hand and enclosing it into her own as she fought to push back threatening tears caused by knowing she would once again be leaving without the man she loved by her side. She had spent years in denial of his death and then several more just trying to accept that he was gone forever. Staring down at her daughter's young and innocent face, she knew then Leon was right. Her children were in the here and now and it was time to let Chris go. There was no sense in lingering on the hope of a future that could never be.


	2. With and Without

_**Chapter 2**_

**-With and Without-**

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><p><em>Sterling, Colorado<em>

The insistent beeping of the bedside alarm clock woke her from a deep sleep. She slapped a hand over the snooze button and peeled an eye open, fighting to rid herself of the sleepiness which sought to overtake her. After finally winning the battle, she propped herself onto one elbow and eyed the clock. 5:15, far too early to be awake in the world in her opinion, not that her opinion mattered. She had work to get to and kids to take care of. Motherhood... Eva shook her head sideways once and released a quiet laugh. It was still hard to believe, even after all this time, that she was a mother of two.

She heard a soft, barely audible scraping noise at the door of her room. Looking over, she spotted her daughter lingering in the doorframe as though waiting for her to get up for the day. Eva swung her legs over the side of the bed, planting her feet firmly on the floor, and regarded Aly with a mixture of amusement and curiosity. Her daughter was like clockwork, each morning ready and waiting for her mom to start her day. Sometimes Eva wondered how much her children ever really slept.

Most of the time when she saw her kids they were wide awake, no trace of tiredness visible in the slightest. Sometimes she wondered if maybe, maybe the virus had an effect on them that was different than what she herself had once experienced when she'd had the Regenerative virus running through her veins. Different even from Chris, who had had an altered strain of the R-Virus within him after a machine changed its composition. After all, Aly and Donovan were born with their virus, the first to ever be.

Eva gestured for Aly to come and her daughter seemed pleased, running over to wrap warm arms around her waist as a greeting. All thoughts of viral infection left her when the five-year-old pulled back and looked up at her with big hazel eyes glowing.

"Can we have pancakes today, Mommy? Pleeease."

She rolled her eyes. The girl was addicted to pancakes.

"We had pancakes yesterday, Al. Don't you think we should try something else today?"

"Pancakes!"

This latest exclamation had come from her other child. With both of them now ecstatic over the idea of eating pancakes for breakfast, Eva knew there was no winning against them today.

"Alright, alright, settle down. You will get your pancakes. But first, get dressed, both of you get going now."

"And you'll make the pancakes?" Aly asked.

"Mhm, now go."

Two pairs of feet scurried out of the room and on down the hallway to their shared room. Inseparable since birth and she liked to think that would never change. Siblings needed one another. It would have been nice to have had a sibling of her own so she wouldn't of spent most of her life alone and generally unsatisfied. She was satisfied now though. She had the family she'd always wanted. Well, she almost had it.

After dressing, taking great care, she placed the diamond necklace safely around her neck. To her it was the closest thing she could do to have Chris with her always. When she'd gathered her work satchel which contained numerous files and other papers, she slung her black leather jacket over the same arm holding the bag, and exited the bedroom. As soon as she entered the kitchen she checked the microwave for the time. It was a twenty minute drive to her Aunt Natasha's and another ten minutes to work from there.

Her primary reason for moving to Sterling had been her only relative that counted for something. She felt it would be wrong to deprive Natasha of the opportunity to spend time with her niece and aforementioned niece's kids. Plus, she'd missed her aunt too. A glance over into the sitting room area that branched off from the kitchen brought a smile to her face. Resting on the rectangular glass table in front of the sofa was a lamp with a blue flower design on it. The flowers were not orchids like she preferred, but it was the best Chris had been able to get for her at the time when he bought it.

She had gone back for the lamp, to that empty and ruined apartment in Collarson, Colorado. When things settled down a little anyway. When she was a hundred percent certain Umbrella Corporation was utterly ruined and gone from the face of the Earth, no longer a threat to her or anyone she cared about. The item held great meaning to her because of the one who bought the lamp, and every time she looked at it, she remembered what she had said to Chris the last night they spent in the apartment they'd chosen to lay low in with her father for a time.

'Did you know orchids are said to have healing power? I wonder if they could heal your wounds, Chris... You know, the ones inside of you.'

The words had just come out, but she had meant them dearly. Chris was deeply afflicted with past tragedies, more than any one person should ever have to bear. She'd seen his pain and sometimes felt it as her own. Sometimes she pondered if that was part of what had drawn them together. That and of course all the bullshit they'd been put through.

She put her satchel and jacket down on a chair, setting to work on preparing the batter for the pancakes, switching the stove on at the same time. Eva watched as Aly and Donovan came into the kitchen, sitting quietly at the table as they waited to be fed. It was downright creepy sometimes, just how calm and well behaved the two could be. She was by no means an expert on children but she was fairly certain kids weren't supposed to act like adults three quarters of the time, right?

When the first of the pancakes were done, she plopped them with practiced ease onto a plate, and placed the plate on the counter beside the stove before turning back to make the rest. Her children loved pancakes and wanted them all the time so she'd become quite the expert on the creation of the soft, fluffy discs of tasty goodness. Yes, she liked pancakes a lot, too. Aly and Donovan just seemed to like them a bit more than what was probably healthy.

Another glance at the clock. It was six o'clock and she had to be to work by seven. Eva had to drop the kids off at her aunt's yet but she figured that left her with a good half hour to feed the kids and get them into the car. Finished making pancakes, she turned off the stove and put the used kitchenware in the sink. Then she made her way over to the table, balancing three plates rather skillfully. Once at the table, she set a plate out in front of each of her children before placing the final plate in front of herself. As soon as she did this, they began to eat in silence. The silence did not last for long.

"Donovan Christopher! You know better than that. Eat with utensils, not your hands."

Sheepishly, the boy looked at her and then grabbed up his fork to eat in a more civilized manner without argument. She gave him a smile to show it was nothing too serious and then it was back to concentrating on devouring their breakfast. It went on this way, the three of them eating quietly, until Eva decided a bit of a conversation would be nice.

"So you two, have any plans for when you get to Natasha's?"

In the typical fashion of a young boy, Donovan shrugged without a pause from his eating. Aly, however, had plenty to say.

"Natasha says we're gonna go for a walk, and then we're gonna play at the park, and then when we get back she said we get to make cookies!"

Eva kept herself from shaking her head at the list of activities, instead opting to grin openly. "Is that all?"

This time Aly did shrug, looking disappointed that she was unable to answer. "I don't know."

"Relax, Al, I was just saying that sounds like a lot. It sounds like plenty of fun."

The little girl nodded vigorously and Eva turned to regard the other little one sitting at the table, very content with eating at the moment.

"What about you, D? Do you think that sounds like a lot of fun?"

Donovan swallowed what was in his mouth and brought a pair of big, round eyes up to meet her gaze. "I like cookies. They're yummy."

Then he was back eating in the next second and Eva couldn't help it, she let out a small laugh, finally returning to her own food. She missed the days when such simple pleasures were enough to keep her content and happy. It was probably why her aunt tried so hard to make sure the kids had a good time whenever they were over. That way they wouldn't go away, like Eva had done. She liked to think she would have stayed with Natasha, had things been different. But her father had been her father, who had been Wesker, and that had made all the difference. It must have made all the difference for Chris's fate as well. She couldn't think of any other reason someone could have been so determined to take the former BSAA agent out of the picture. It always seemed to amount to being in some way, whether directly or indirectly, Wesker's fault. __Chris...__

/

_The sky was clear, hardly a cloud in the sky that day. It seemed funny to Eva at the time. She would have thought it would be raining on such an occasion. That's how it always seemed to go in the movies. Rain, when the primary character in the story being told was saddest, usually because there had been a loss of some kind. And there had certainly been a loss for Eva. Six full months after Chris's disappearance, the police finally had had enough of her persistence to keep the case open as a missing person's case. Their argument was that there existed ample evidence of death, evidence that had been found mere days after Chris first went missing._

_The police would be right, too. An excess of blood had been found at the warehouse police believed the former BSAA agent had not been taken to by force. They believed it was the place where he died as the amount of blood found at the scene was too much to hope for a man to have survived. Wesker had called her, because of course he had somehow learned detailed information about the police investigation, and even he informed her that her hope was false. He explained to her that even someone as special as Chris was, with a form of the R-Virus inside him, could not hope to survive the loss of so much blood._

_She ignored him, ignored anyone who dared tell her the search for Chris was pointless, and for six months she did everything in her power to try and find him. After those six months expired, the detective in charge of the case told her he could hold off no longer, and declared the case closed. So by all rights and purposes, Chris Redfield was declared officially dead for the second time in his life. The death was made much more concrete though as the word got around, and a proper funeral was held now that law enforcement was certain of the fatality this time. And the day of the funeral had been a beautiful day._

_Chris had spent the majority of his life too busy for much socializing, choosing to spend most of his time working on one kind of mission or another. Yet there had been a fair portion of attendees at the ceremony held at the burial site. Eva hadn't realized, and she'd wondered at the time if Chris had ever even known himself, that he had touched so many lives during the span of his lifetime. She knew most of Chris's history, so she was not surprised when she arrived at the funeral, to see he was to be honored for his service in the military. He served in the Air Force for a time before retiring at a young age, deciding he just wasn't on the same page as his superiors that he worked under, and Raccoon City S.T.A.R.S. then loomed soon after in the horizon for him._

_Though it was an unspecified discharge from the Air Force, it appeared the military was more than happy to approve the deceased man's sister's request for a burial with honors. After all, Chris Redfield might not have felt he was built for the military life, but he had decided to dedicate the better part of his life to working for the government. Not only that, but he had served his country in such a way that he received commendations and recognition of distinguished service for the United States. In other words, Chris had made a difference in the world, and they were willing to acknowledge that with at least a proper burial ceremony._

_Even though Eva had been the one to spend the most time with Chris in the last weeks of his life, somehow she felt like she would have been intruding on the funeral, had she sat beside Claire, who was of course seated front row. So instead she chose to remain in the background, there throughout it all, but there as a silent member of the crowd come to mourn. It was easier to observe everything that way as well._

_Most present in the cemetery she did not recognize. That in itself wasn't so strange considering Eva had known the deceased man for only months, not years like she assumed many of the people there had. She did know a few of them though, from pictures Chris had shown her, and memories he had shared. One such as Barry Burton for instance. Barry had served in the same unit as Chris in the Air Force, as well as being on the same team in S.T.A.R.S. In fact, Chris once told her Barry was the one to introduce him to her father, Albert Wesker, and she wasn't entirely certain Chris ever truly forgave the older man for doing so. It wasn't like Barry knew at the time how much of a traitorous bastard Wesker would actually turn out to be._

_So there had been Barry Burton present with his wife Kathy and their girls, seated in the same row as Claire and Leon. A sizable quantity of BSAA members had shown up for the funeral and another old face from the past had become recognizable to her almost as quickly as Barry had. A woman somewhere in her thirties, a fellow survivor of that horrendous incident in the mansion outside Raccoon City in 1998. Her name was Rebecca Chambers and she and Chris had helped one another survive that nightmare of a night filled with monsters of numerous kinds. There were three other familiar faces, two men and a young blonde haired woman, seated amongst the people in attendance. _

_The six active U.S. Air Force members carrying the casket from the hearse over to the grave had drawn her gaze then, becoming the only thing she focused on. Never having found a body, the casket was purely ceremonial, for the sake of having something to bury in his name. Inside were a few personal effects selected by his sister, Claire, though Eva had never bothered to ask what exactly had been put in there. It didn't really seem all that important to her. In the end, Chris would still be dead and she would still be broken._

_She never noticed the man lurking at the back of the gathered crowd, not even that far from her own position, leaning against a tree. The man wearing a long black leather coat and dark sunglasses. Wesker, come to mourn a deceased man, once ally and once enemy to him intermittently throughout the years. Eva never took any notice of a woman in a red dress either, the dress mostly hidden by a tan trench coat likely used for the very purpose of obscuring the dress from obvious sight. She didn't directly join the mourners, choosing instead to remain farther apart from them. This woman did notice Wesker, and he noticed her, but neither acknowledged the other and they both probably preferred it that way. _

__It was when the soldiers were folding the American flag that had once been spread across the casket, preparing it to be presented to the next of kin, his sister, when Eva finally gave in. She wept openly and bitterly. She liked to think it was because she was well over six months pregnant, a fact concealed by a bulky sweatshirt, that she was so emotionally unstable and incapable of maintaining her general emotionless facade. She would like to think that, but she knew better. It was immense grief she was enduring pure and simple. The man she loved taken from her without warning, without any foreseeable or explainable reason. And it was just unfair.__

/

A particularly powerful rack of coughing brought Eva right from her thoughts as she fought to get her breath returned. She wiped her nose out of reflex and cursed when the side of her hand came back wet with blood. Both of her children were staring wide-eyed at her and she scolded herself in her head for swearing in front of them. Eva excused herself from the table quickly, telling them to finish their breakfast and get their coats on. There was no need for them to see her acting..unmotherly.

A mother was perfect in the eyes of a child and she didn't want their naive, and therefore innocent lives to be disrupted by anything whatsoever. It was why she had completely left her old life behind. No more weapons, no more fighting, no more going looking for trouble, or her father. Trouble and her father tended to go hand in hand so it only made her life easier that she'd decided to put Wesker in the past along with the rest of the life she used to have.

She splashed water on her face over the bathroom sink and grabbed up a washcloth to dry her face, ridding it of the obnoxious blood as well. Fortunate for her, the nosebleed was slight and she managed to clean herself up within a couple of minutes. Drying her hands, she switched off the bathroom light and returned to the kitchen to find Donovan ready to go while Aly remained seated at the table. The child was finished eating, her dish already properly rinsed and in the sink, but she had made no move to put her coat on.

After grabbing hold of her own coat and satchel, she came over to her daughter. "Aly Jane, what's the problem? We have to go."

Still Aly did not move. Eva switched tactics and shifted the tone in her voice from stern to concerned.

"Al, Natasha is waiting."

"Are you going to go away?"

"Excuse me?"

"Are you going to go away like Daddy?"

Instantly she was at her daughter's side. "No, of course not. Why would you even think that?"

Continuing to look straight ahead of herself, the five-year-old shrugged her little shoulders and stood up to put her coat on. Eva stopped her briefly, placing a hand lightly atop her head.

"Hey, Aly, I'm not going anywhere, okay? I'm going to stay right here with you guys."

Aly met her eyes then and what she said next shocked her to the core. "You say that now but..."

"But what? What is it? What's bothering you?"

"Things are going to change. You don't know it yet but they are."

"Nothing's changing, what are you talking about?"

"We should go." Aly said instead. "We don't want to keep Natasha waiting."

Eva stared after her daughter as she shrugged her coat on and went to stand by her brother at the front door. The siblings exchanged glances with one another before turning their attention on the door, as if waiting for it to open for them. Eva couldn't make heads or tails about what Aly meant and again she got that feeling of puzzlement whenever either one of her kids acted far beyond their years. Those two were far more intuitive than the average person, more intuitive than Eva herself, a woman at genius level intelligence. Then again, her children weren't fully human so all bets were off.

She ushered the two of them out the door and let her eyes linger on the closet directly across from the front door that double-locked with a deadbolt. Inside the closet was a 12-gauge shotgun hidden at the back of the top shelf along with extra ammunition. If anyone were to look in the locked bedside drawer, there was a .45 handgun with an extra clip, the key holding permanent residence inside the pillowcase of the pillow she slept on. Under the driver's seat of her black, four-door Sedan was a magnum and a 9mm. Her children were all she had any more and she wasn't going to risk losing them if anyone were to find out they weren't entirely human. No way in hell would Eva ever let anything bad happen to them. She protected her own.


	3. The Recruits

_**Chapter 3**_

**-The Recruits-**

_Nine Years Earlier_

* * *

><p><em>Atlanta, Georgia<em>

Exactly twenty-two prisoners currently inhabited the first floor of Cell Block B in the United States Penitentiary. This particular prison was medium security, primarily used for transfers, with male prisoners once delivered there occupying isolated cells until pick-up. The isolation cells were full up at the moment, however, leaving several transfer prisoners to be living temporarily among the general population. These prisoners were being housed in Block B. When the time came for prisoner check before heading to the mess hall, a twenty-third prisoner was present for count without notice from prisoners and guards alike.

This prisoner who did not belong, wore the same solid blue shirt and pants that every other inmate wore. The pants were baggy and the shirt was loose, even on one as muscular in the upper body as he certainly was. A gray-uniformed guard moved along the row of standing inmates, glancing from a clipboard to their faces, appearing as though he thought the whole task to be rather mundane. Everything was calm, business as usual, until the guard reached the end of his first line and to the man who didn't belong in this room. Bored gaze peered from clipboard to face, clipboard to face, and then the bored look was exchanged for a confused and suspicious one.

"Who are you?" he demanded of the unidentified man. "Name."

"A man with a schedule to keep, so you'll have to forgive me if I don't stay to chat," the man told him earnestly, before proceeding to sock him full force in the center of his face.

The guard dropped like a stone and as soon as he hit the floor, the place erupted into chaos. It was the diversion the intruder had intended and he pushed his way through the mess of prisoners and now guards too, trying to make it over to a particular prisoner. This prisoner he searched to gain sight of was tall and well-built, his blue shirt wrapped around his waist in favor of sporting the simple white tank top instead, and he was standing off to the side in order to keep out of the way of the fighting. A long tribal tattoo extended down his right arm and it was that distinguishing mark which told the starter of a prison riot that he had his man.

"Billy Coen, right?"

Dark eyes searched the man who had called upon him. "Am I supposed to know who you are?"

"Probably not. We only met once, a long time ago. You were running."

"Buddy, I've been running my whole life. Who are you and what do you want from me? Not that you care, but I'm an innocent man waiting to die, and I'd like to do it in peace."

"Right, sorry about that. My name is Chris Redfield. I'm the one here to get you out."

"And why would you do that?" questioned Billy.

"As you said, you're an innocent man."

"And the real reason?"

Chris smiled at the man's no bullshit kind of attitude. He was liking this guy already.

"We're putting a team together. There's a threat on the rise, of the biological weapon kind. We believe a man named Darius Greene is leading this group building weapons and I understand you've had some experience with this sort of thing."

Billy Coen shook his head. "That was a long time ago."

"Yes, we know." Chris told him. "But you managed to elude the authorities for over a decade. That makes you pretty good."

"At running away. Doesn't sound like a useful asset to me."

Chris grinned. "Trust me, it's useful. You fight for us, and I can promise you we're not going to let the government get its hands on you. In fact, we're going to fake your death. At least until it's safe enough for us to bring you forward and get your record cleared."

"Another tried to do that for me once, faking my death. She was trying to give me a chance to get away. It didn't work out so well as you can see." Billy indicated his point by tugging at the issued tank top part of his prison uniform.

A guard came charging in the direction of the two, apparently deciding that their mere standing in one place and talking was a threatening gesture. With a sigh, Chris refrained from responding to Billy in favor of spinning and landing a well-aimed kick into the guard's chest when he got close enough. The employee flew several feet, getting far too cruelly treated by a couple of prisoners who thought it would be fun to start kicking at the fallen man. Chris put an end to that when he walked over and put them both down, one with a kick to the chest like the guard, and the other with a nose breaking punch to the face.

Returning to Billy, Chris ran a hand through his short hair. "Rebecca, I know. We can get the job done and make it official, believe me. Now if you're coming, let's go before back-up arrives."

"Look, who is we? You seem like a soldier but you're talking like a government agent. I don't exactly trust the government after what they did to me."

"I don't work for the government, not any more. I don't have time to give you my whole life's history so either you're in or out. Oh, and if it helps, Rebecca Chambers is in."

"Rebecca..." Billy murmured, more to himself, before raising the volume of his voice to say something to Chris. "You know Rebecca?"

"Yeah, I do."

Billy glanced down at his attire, the chaos of the prison cell around him, and then back to Chris. "Alright let's do this."

Chris smiled and nodded, extending out his hand. "Glad to have you with us."

After a quick handshake, Chris led the way, jogging to the other side of the cell area where the fighting was least prominent. A guard was there with an assault rifle, appearing to be blocking the exit from any prisoners who might dare to try and escape during the riot. Chris knew the guard in particular was there for a different reason. A quick look at one another and then the guard was handing a gun to him and in return he pressed a rather thick wad of bills into the gloved hand. Billy was looking pretty bewildered by the act but Chris only gave him a grin and a wave for him to follow.

Chaos was everywhere, even outside. There were helicopter blades whirring up above. The pair of men turned their sights skyward to find the chopper approaching. Shockingly to the retrieved inmate, it was not a marked police aircraft. Chris was not so surprised. He'd been expecting it. When the aircraft reached the two, it touched down smoothly and a young woman hopped out. She was maybe twenty-four or twenty-five, with brown hair pulled back in a messy bun and blue eyes. The scope rifle she had slung over one shoulder only added to her attractiveness.

"Waiting for an invitation, Chris?"

The man addressed, smiled at her, then looked towards Billy. "Leena, this is Billy Coen, our newest member. Billy, this is Leena Goessing, former military and a hell of a shot."

Chris approached the helicopter. "And the pilot for tonight, Keith Rennigan. He prefers to go by Renny. He's a decent shot so we like to keep him around."

"Hey! I heard that. Not nice, man. Now let's go! Police _are _coming to lock this place down."

Billy watched as the young woman boarded the chopper, Chris following close behind. The male turned back, peeking over his shoulder towards the freed prisoner.

"You coming, Coen?"

"It's Billy. Yeah I am."

He wondered if Rebecca had thought of him at all during the years since that nightmarish day in 1998. He'd thought of her plenty. On second thought, he knew she had thought of him at some point. After going through a nightmare like that together, there wasn't any doubt.

_One week later_

_Southern Europe- exact location unknown_

Rumors of biological catastrophes have been greatly underestimated. The rising death toll, the countless small towns and villages lost to man-made plagues, continue to be undervalued at every turn. Men like Albert Wesker get away with doing things like infecting remote places because there isn't much proof and there isn't much care. At least, nobody cared until America was directly affected by it.

America had been hit before, in 1998. The Raccoon City disaster saw the loss of over 100,00 American lives because of a T-Virus outbreak that spread across the city, turning citizens into the living dead. As time went by, ordinary everyday people began to forget. The U.S. government continued the campaign against Umbrella Corporation by legal means and by the year 2004, the company was supposedly finished. In secret, Umbrella continued to exist and flourish, creating seemingly upstanding and legit organizations such as the B.S.A.A. (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance), and Murphy Pharmaceuticals.

It was the hard work and sacrifice of a few who saved the world when a threat arose in Kijuju, Africa, 2009. It was the same determination and bloodshed of those few who saved the world again in Aurora, Colorado, that same year. The public didn't really understand what went on with those two separate incidents, and the government was busy trying to continue the cover-up of the very real threat biological warfare presented to the world. Nobody remembered Raccoon City any more. Everyone had forgotten. Then Belfort, France was wiped off the map. Suddenly everybody cared.

Chris had always cared and he'd been in the mud and the rain, risking it all to try and bring a very real peace of mind to the American people, heck, to the world's mind. If biological weaponry began elsewhere in the world, how long would it take to reach the U.S? He didn't think it would take long at all and he wasn't willing to wait around to find out. So when the latest organization he'd devoted himself to turned out to be a fraud, run by the very people he had sworn vengeance against, he walked away from the B.S.A.A. and decided to find his own allies in the fight against bio-terrorism.

Now, after several months had passed since the Aurora mission, his own hand-picked team was nearly complete. There was one more recruit to find and offer a position on his team. He'd had enough of trusting Wesker's kind of people and so this time around, when Wesker claimed to desire to stop bioterrorist threats along with him, he'd informed the guy that he'd be doing the choosing for their next renegade band of misfits according to society. So now here they were, in some place he didn't know the name of, nearby a place he _only_ knew the name of, Edonia.

Five members of Chris's newly founded vigilante anti-bioterrorism force, entered the foreign nation with him. Seven members would leave with him to another country to begin the battle against the threat Darius Greene posed. Albert Wesker was immediately drawn in to his decision to seek the recruitment of this latest subject of interest. He was aware Chris was familiar with the girl's name because of Claire Redfield's association with her since the Raccoon City incident. In fact, it was Claire's association with the girl that had led Chris to her. There was no other familiarity there though. Chris could see all of this and yet the man never asked why he'd selected her to join their team. It made him smile a little, seeing Wesker forcing himself to exercise restraint in questioning his current motives.

Maybe Wesker was growing somewhat after all, if he was allowing Chris to choose someone from his past to join. Or maybe the guy was just glad Chris was separated from his daughter. That last thought rubbed him the wrong way a bit, but hey, Eva had made the decision of her own free will. She wanted a real life. Safe from the constant perils a life on the run, an endless fight against bioterrorism, and being the daughter of an infamous man got her if she remained in that line of work. He couldn't blame her for leaving. But it didn't make him miss her any less.

"Chris, we're nearly there." Renny called back to the team leader.

When Chris did the recruiting, it was kind of assumed by the people he asked to join his team that he was running things. He did try to correct it by admitting no single person was calling the shots at any given time, but a couple of them flat out told him they wouldn't be following anything Wesker tried to order them to do. Apparently they didn't trust the guy. Chris could relate. Though his lack of trust came from personal experience rather than simply being weirded out by the man's persistent habits of wearing sunglasses and failing to smile. Then the name of the team somehow came about shortly after it was unanimously decided he was to be leader. Red. Red team, or Team Red. As in, Chris Redfield, shorten the last name, to get just Red.

It just got worse from there, because although Leena was absolutely professional where required, she was also obviously holding a torch for him. Weeks went by without him realizing it and then Wesker had made a very inappropriate and very adult comment concerning the issue which left the pair of them red-faced and not speaking to one another for days. Time had continued to pass, a couple missions were completed (locations Wesker was able to recall from a computer in the lab of the Aurora facility infinitely useful), and somehow things went on back to the way they were. The way they were, save for the fact that Chris consciously chose to ignore the crush instead of being completely oblivious to it. Maybe he should have manned up and confronted her about it but he had more important matters weighing on his mind. Like Darius Greene. Darius had to be stopped.

At one point Chris had been sympathetic to Darius's situation. His family had been slaughtered by the Umbrella Corporation, his younger brother kidnapped and experimented on for years. The experimentation had turned the brother bad, inhuman really. The guy had clearly lost it and saw the world as something that needed to be wiped clean, as in complete extermination of every living thing. They'd had no choice but to put him down.

Darius hadn't liked that. Though the truth of the matter was that Greene revealed himself to be greedy just like the Umbrella heads he hated so much. He felt entitled to have everything the company had since they stole his brother from him. So now even with Umbrella permanently gone, there was still another psycho running about out there causing chaos. After they picked up the next member of the group, they would be headed abroad to investigate the destruction of an entire city. The government had decided to bomb it into extinction, exactly like Raccoon. This was probably the first move made by Darius to try and continue experimenting with Umbrella's materials. An accidental outbreak or a test exposure, that was something Chris didn't even care to know. He was over trying to talk to him. The man had beaten him into a bloody mess and would have killed him if the very thankful appearance of Claire, Leon, Eva, Wesker, and Krauser hadn't occurred.

"You ready for this?" he asked Billy Coen, turning to glance to where the muscular man in tan cargo pants, a dark blue t-shirt, and an assault vest was seated.

Billy was checking and rechecking his primary firearm. It was why he had asked. They were pursuing a government agent who had been sent on a mission. This was an unknown situation, shit would probably go to hell like it always did, and he wanted to be sure the other was ready for that kind of action after being cooped up in prison. He'd made the guy show him he still had an eye for shooting and he did, being former military and all. It couldn't hurt to check the preparedness of the latest recruit now that their arrival was fast approaching.

"Why won't you tell me about the mission where you last encountered Darius Greene?"

Well, it wasn't exactly the response he was expecting. He glanced out the helicopter's side window behind where he was seated before looking back towards Billy. He didn't answer. Aurora was a mission where he nearly died, yes. But he had nearly died plenty of times in the past. The suffering, had been memorably high though, as had the loss. Losing Jill, losing Sheva, nearly dying in Africa, that was horrible during that mission. The mission in Aurora, Colorado, however, had been a darker kind of hell. He'd suffered and been approaching death from being literally thrown through time. He witnessed a happy future free from this life of heartache and extreme danger and sacrifice, which included an actual family he'd always wanted. And he turned it down. Once again he pushed aside his own happiness in exchange for continuing the fight to protect the happiness and security of others. Then he lost Eva too.

"It's gonna be dangerous from here on in if everything you've told me is true. So how about we cooperate?"

"A lot of the things I've kept from you, you wouldn't believe."

The escaped prisoner, hoping to be freed from his wrongful conviction after successfully serving in Chris's squad for a time, scoffed at him. "I've seen a lot of things I wouldn't have believed before seeing them. Like a crazy walking leech guy who thought his name was James Marcus."

Wesker had something to say to that, smirking as he did so. "The man was bizarre even in life."

"Oh, I believe it. I heard his little loud speaker announcement that repeated throughout the mansion like some kind of creepy, 'I'm crazy but your boss so watch out' mantra."

Wesker released a low chuckle, continuing to face forward as he said, "Ending him was a breath of fresh air."

Admitting to murder, that was one way to end a conversation instantaneously. Leena and Renny, who knew Wesker the least, exchanged uncomfortable, uncertain glances. Rebecca was looking angry over such a calm and cold-hearted admittance of guilt, while Billy just looked a little put out. So much for a team bonding moment. Or maybe this helicopter ride wasn't a total loss. His fellow former S.T.A.R.S. member and mansion incident survivor had traded in her negative stare to a more concerned one for Billy, moving to sit next to him.

"How are you, Billy?"

"Rebecca, it's good to see you."

"That's not an answer."

"Looks like there's a lot of that going around. Can't get a straight answer out of anyone in this group."

He stared directly at Chris as he said this. Chris rolled his eyes and averted his gaze to his own window, though he continued to listen.

"Billy, you're alive. You survived. That's what's important."

The man cleared his throat. "Yeah, well, it looks like you did a lot better than me. Chris told me you're a hotshot doctor saving lives on a daily basis."

Rebecca giggled. Over a decade gone by since she was an 18-year-old rookie and Chris still couldn't believe how youthful the woman always appeared. It must have something to do with how she carried herself, so light-heartedly and with such ease.

"I wanted a place where I could use my skills for the benefit of mankind. After what happened..that night, really two nights for me... I couldn't see myself using my brain for scientific research purposes any longer. Too many decent scientists either unknowingly created evil or they became evil all for the sake of trying to make people better." Chris turned around to look at her as she shifted, placing a hand over one of Billy's own. "People are who they are. No amount of science can change what's in here."

She moved her free hand to place it over his heart. Billy nodded knowingly in her direction. "Anybody can overcome adversity but if you truly want to test a person's strength, give them power."

The team medic seemed impressed and contemplative over his comment. "Who said that?"

Billy took the hand from his heart and held it for a moment. "Abraham Lincoln."

He shrugged it off the next second when noises from the ground they were flying over became audible. All eyes immediately went to the windows and the area directly below them. They could hear sporadic gunfire and screaming, lots of screaming.

Chris chose the moment to draw their attention in to the mission at hand. "Check your spare ammunition, make sure all weapons are loaded, the safety off. No time for mistakes on a mission like this. There have been reports of people going missing in the area, mysterious deaths. We're going in heavy because we're not taking any chances."

"People gone missing. Yeah, this is exactly the kind of shit I was talking about. Way to keep the team informed, captain."

"I'm not a captain. It's Chris, just Chris."

"Whatever you say, boss."

"I will knock your ass out of this helicopter, Coen."

His sister, Claire, had wanted him to steer clear from Wesker and find another organization to join. One that could provide backup and support, plus legit resources they could use. Chris didn't like the idea because of this sort of thing; people giving him attitude or superiors trying to tell him how he should do his job. He wasn't eager to go through that crap again anytime soon. After what happened with the B.S.A.A. turning out to be a creation of Umbrella's in order to keep tabs on people like him trying to stop illegal biological research and experimentation, his partner, Sheva Alomar, betraying him, he chose a different way. A way where things could actually get done. Chris hated to admit it but a lot more did get done with Wesker along, and it got done faster and with fewer casualties.

"Temper, Chris."

He just wanted to knock Wesker's teeth out and likely, the other man knew full well the emotion he was evoking. Chris ran a hand through his hair, slightly ruffling it, and breathed in then out. His gaze went to the window as the chopper descended outside of the direct area where the trouble was present. People were running terrified down there. He was ready as soon as the helicopter touched down, hopping out. Billy, Rebecca, and Leena followed close behind while Wesker remained inside with the pilot, who was leaning over him to talk out the window.

"You go ahead on foot. I'm gonna circle the joint."

Chris tapped his radio earpiece to signal the pilot talk through his own headset to test it out, responding, "Roger that. Provide cover fire where needed."

The pilot had gotten the best look at what was happening out there and so he gave an affirmative response before preparing to set off into the sky again. Chris led the way at the ground level, Leena not far from him, then Billy, with Rebecca taking up the rear. They headed right into a war zone, or rather, a massacre.


	4. Red Team

_**Chapter 4**_

**-Red Team-**

* * *

><p><em>Nine Years Earlier<em>

* * *

><p><em>Southern Europe- exact location unknown<em>

The villagers were running every which way, fear and panic abound. Four pairs of eyes tried to take in as much as possible, as quickly as possible. There was a building being absolutely swarmed by a mob of people dead ahead. To the right, a girl was screaming bloody murder as a woman crouched over her. Chris couldn't figure out why until the blood began to stream from beneath where the young girl was lying. He didn't waste any time running over to shove the woman off with the bottom of his boot.

Leena was right with him. Together they realized in horror that the woman had been feeding on the girl's neck. The woman spat a piece of flesh out, blood dribbling down her chin, and stared at them in what could only be described as a deranged manner. Her eyes were reddened, badly irritated, dark and very visible veins showing on her bare arms, neck, and face. On closer viewing, her arms and legs appeared somewhat contorted and elongated as well, neck hanging awkwardly to the side while she stared.

"What? Is this what a zombie is like?"

He shook his head confusedly. "I..don't know... This looks like the majini I saw in Africa but.." His eyes went from the woman directly in front of them to the immediate area around. "Look at the way they attack, so vicious..almost animalistic."

The two of them watched as the woman slowly turned away again, back to the girl who was now motionless in the dirt with eyes of glass. She leaned over the body, dropping to her knees. Placing her lips to touch the puddle of blood, she began to slurp it up. Chris gaped at the disgusting sight.

"This isn't a zombie. This is something else. Zombies hunger for flesh. There's clearly something wrong with her but it's.."

"Whoah. Ew! Nasty! It's like a vampire." Billy remarked, coming up to stand at Chris's other shoulder with Rebecca.

"My God..."

"Hey Rebecca, remember those giant leeches on the train? Must have wiped those poor suckers out in-"

Rebecca interrupted the reminder of a nightmare long past. "I remember Billy."

She didn't sound like she was too fond of the opportunity to be reminded of that particular portion of her past.

"What's happened to them?" she wondered aloud. "Who could have done this?"

No one answered her because they didn't know. Well, maybe Chris knew.

"I don't know what this is, but it is definitely something Darius Greene could be capable of. Keep your eyes open and help these people. Billy, Rebecca, head to the left and help anyone you can. Leena, you're with me. Make sure your comm. device is on at all times and search for any evidence that this is Greene's handiwork."

"Chris."

He paused to turn back and meet her eyes. "This won't be like last time, like Raccoon. We're all getting out of here."

She gave him a weak smile and then jogged off to catch up with Billy, who was being attacked by some of these strange looking people. So they _were_ violent.

"Chris!"

The tone told him everything he needed to know. Chris didn't even look. He dove and rolled sideways, in time to avoid the long freakin' arm slamming into the ground where he'd stood a moment ago. This guy was even further gone than the others. One arm appeared a tad longer than usual but the other was so overgrown and thick, it dragged behind him as he stalked towards Leena now.

The not-person slathered at her, an overly lengthy tongue hanging out of its mouth. It released a growl and then used the extensive arm to propel itself up from the ground to leap atop her. Leena took a couple steps to the side, avoiding the person who had once been a man, and aimed her weapon at him. She hesitated, staring at the horrifically deformed human.

"What's happened to him?"

"Some kind of mutation. Shoot it!"

"But..could there be a cure?"

The thing came at her again before he could answer and she didn't hesitate to put it down with a brief spray of bullets from her machine gun. She looked shaken but quickly composed herself. A first time in a situation like this, he couldn't blame her. Seeing people reduced to near mindless monsters was never easy. But Chris learned long ago that his survival usually depended on his ability to shoot them dead before they got to him.

"No time to worry about the possibility of a cure," she concluded on her own, speaking out of breath even though she hadn't exerted herself physically.

He could understand that, too. Together, they spread slightly out, clearing the area of the violent people obviously infected with something awful. The infected people were agitated and murderous, latching on to the uninfected to drain them of their blood. Unfortunately, when they'd gotten through the area, everyone was either dead, exhibiting rabid-like behavior, or else had been bitten and fed off of partially. And the ones who had been fed from, had begun to turn themselves, within minutes. A little boy seemingly fine one moment, was found in the next, tearing open his older sister's wrist with his teeth. Teeth that had somehow become sharper almost instantly after the infection had completely taken him over.

Chris put a bullet in him and the rest of the turning survivors himself, Leena beyond unnerved by what she was witnessing to do much on her end. Before moving on, he'd waited until she was ready. It was a shocking scene to suddenly stumble upon. She deserved the time to grasp the present situation. What could be afforded anyway.

About five minutes after he no longer heard the helicopter blades spinning in the air, having moved on no doubt, he knew they had to move.

"Leena, get it together. Do what you've always done. Breathe deep, keep yourself moving, and focus on the mission. We came here to find a potential new member to our cause. And what we did for these people, was put them out of their misery. They weren't who they used to be. None of them. I've had a lot of experience with viruses and infections. Just look at me."

He waved a hand in the general area of his eyes, referencing the green specks in them.

"When you become infected, you're altered. Sometimes the virus is sophisticated enough to leave the infected near human, just..better improved in some areas. For me, I heal wounds within a few hours and I'm more resilient to injury than the average human because I was infected with something called the Regenerative virus, then put through actual time travel which rearranged my cell structure. Wouldn't recommend that by the way. Now, this girl I'm looking to bring to our team, she can heal, too. She can heal better than I can, even faster, a side effect of once being infected with the G-Virus. These people here... I don't know what infected them but it was something that changed them more than either me or the woman we're looking for. They are changed more than Wesker. They have no rational thought. They only thirst for violence and for some strange reason, also for blood. That's made them a threat to others. Do you see?"

"Of course I do. It's just..." Leena sighed and pushed herself to her feet. "I guess."

He accepted it. "All right then. Let's move."

She smiled at him and nodded. "Yes. Come on."

Together the two of them scoured the main roadway they were traveling upon, making their way further into this small village. Every so often they came upon an infected who tried to attack them, but there was no major trouble. It was a welcome change to the usual crap Chris was used to enduring on his missions. He supposed this could be considered a minor one. A mission precluding the true mission to put a stop to Darius Greene and his people.

There was a somber atmosphere to this day though. It was already getting dark. Perhaps they'd left a tad later than was safest, but the information had come when it came and they'd left once they got it.

"Listen." He held up his hand as a signal for his partner to stop behind him.

There was a sound drawing near. His eyes scanned the ground where he noticed slight trembling at the surface. Something big was coming. Something he very much doubted would be friendly. Chris lowered his arm and picked up the pace, jogging to the side and placing his back against one of the buildings. Leena followed his lead and plastered herself beside him just as the source of the noise came into sight.

"What..What is that?" his female counterpart gasped out.

"That's a big ass mother fucker is what it is."

Chris and Leena's firearms came up to aim at the unidentified male voice in a synchronized fashion. There was a young man, probably in his late teens at the most. Somehow his face made him appear older though. He had close shaven hair, a solid jaw, a scar on one cheek, and a hardened face. His clothing included army combat pants, boots, a belt, a black shirt and a black leather jacket. He wore gloves and he was armed. What business he had here was anybody's guess. The guy also gave Chris a feeling of familiarity he couldn't shake. The words came out before he could think about it.

"Do I know you from somewhere?"

"What? Chris do you know this man?" Leena questioned.

The guy was looking at him like he was insane for asking the question. "Nah, you military type all look the same to me."

He reminded Chris an awful lot of the way Eva was: Confident, self-assured, intelligent, and cocky all at once.

"That's who you are, yeah?" Jake continued. "Clearly Americans, and being all the way out here, gotta be."

"Sorry to disappoint." Chris told him.

He took a moment to check out the jacket he was wearing more closely. It could be that it was a type of uniform of a less legitimate organization. Maybe he should be asking _him_ if he was a member of some military group.

A roar shook the ground and the building he and Leena had their backs against, reminding him of the matter at hand. The creature that was stomping through the pathways of a couple of buildings very close to their present location was big, and that was an understatement. It stood maybe fifteen feet high, lanky, but with long trailing arms and legs. The dragging arms had razor sharp fingernails and the head was huge, lolling, skin dark and almost black. The eyes were practically bugging out of its large head, mouth wide and brimming with lines of sharp teeth. The mouth was creepy, lips forming an almost upturned "O" shape, lined with the pointy rows of incisors.

_All the better for drinking human blood._ He shuddered at the thought.

Surprisingly, the much younger man started the introductions. "Name's Jake Muller. And you are?"

"Chris Redfield. This is Leena Goessing."

"Well, Chris, Leena, I've been hired to get rid of this freak, so whatd'ya say you help me out while you're here?"

He didn't wait to see if they followed. The kid was reckless. He went running for the big creature before Chris even knew it was happening. The former agent took a breath and then raced after the guy to try and prevent his getting himself killed.

Chris heard his partner trailing behind. She stopped short and then released a burst of gunfire from her machine gun. It seemed she didn't want to get too close to the monstrosity towering over them with that insanely creepy, permanent razor-tooth smile. Perhaps his partner had the right idea. He found himself dodging swipes from the tree trunk sized limbs. The thing could move them amazingly fast for his large size.

Finding his moment, he ducked under the creature, raising his weapon above him and firing as he moved below it.

The monster howled with pained rage and lashed out with a giant clawed foot. He managed to avoid it by diving over and behind a stack of cut wood. Then Jake was on it, unloading an entire clip of his handgun into the creature's face.

It served as a distraction, but that was about it. Chris took advantage, using the opportunity to fire at the back of the large head and neck. Leena followed his example, shooting at the actual face of the probably once human thing attacking them.

Continuous bullets pelting its face and head really seemed to be pissing it off. Chris shifted around to the front of the creature and took aim. Two perfect shots managed to blind it in both eyes. The move had placed him directly in front of the monster and unfortunately, it left him vulnerable and in the path of its literal blind rage.

He jumped backwards to avoid one deadly trunk-sized appendage and never saw the other coming until it slammed into him full force. Bones in his body broke upon impact and the pain was instant and intense. His back smashed onto the roof of a building and he rolled roughly down and off, to the ground. The last thing he recalled was a woman screaming his name. It had to be Leena. Everything went dark.

/

When he woke, it was dark. But a different kind of dark. Night had fallen. He sat up and then stood, remembering what had happened to him but fully aware he was healed. He checked himself over and was impressed. There was no sign of any damage to his body that had felt completely useless and broken right before he'd lost consciousness.

"Thank God you're okay."

He turned around to find three sets of eyes on him. His partner had been the one to speak and even though she'd known he could heal, she must have doubted it just the same. It was a pretty crazy thing to even be told, and to see it happen was another thing entirely. The other two present were looking awfully surprised and in awe. She must not have told them what he could do.

The guy, Jake Muller, walked up to him and grabbed his arm, then pressed a hand to his ribs. Okay... Intrusive much. He put a hand on the young man's shoulder and pushed him gently away.

"Impossible. Your ribs were shattered, your arms and legs broken and bent all out of shape." He glanced over his shoulder at the third person in the room. "Do you think he's like you?"

Room. He was in a sparse room where he'd been lying on a table until he'd woken. Possibly he was in the very building he was thrown into. Chris glanced around Jake to his partner and the other individual in the room.

"Well, I don't know. I heal instantaneously while it took him nearly twelve hours to recover from the severe damage his body endured."

"Sherry." He smiled with relief. Then comprehended her words. "Twelve hours!"

His hand went to the ear where his earpiece was and found it absent. He must have lost it when he was thrown onto the roof of a building, then dropped to the ground. Leena didn't have a comm. device of her own which meant he'd lost touch with his people and had no idea where they were. On the bright side, he had found Sherry Birkin.

She looked rightly suspicious. "You know me?"

So Jake and Leena hadn't introduced him. Just what had those twelve hours been like while they held vigil over his motionless and broken body? Must have involved primarily silence and a whole lot of awkward. He wasn't too bothered he'd missed it.

"My name is Chris Redfield. I've come with an offer for you."

"Your partner's already filled me in on your group and what you're trying to do. But Chris Redfield? As in Claire Redfield? You're Claire's brother?"

He nodded in confirmation. "Yeah. She's the reason I decided to come looking for you to join really. She told me about your special condition and how you were growing up, adopting a similar attitude to her, or so she tells me."

The young woman laughed a little. "Yeah, it's true. Claire's kind of always been my great big hero, you know? Saving my life and risking hers to get me out of that city when I was a kid. Spending all that time with me when I was..you know..having tests done for all those years."

He returned a smile to her. "Yeah, she has a soft spot for you big time."

Sherry came closer and for a moment she appeared almost shy about what she said next. "You know, you're her hero. She looks up to you and tries to be like you so I suppose in a way, you are my hero too."

"Wha-I don't know about that," he stammered in surprise.

He'd never expected to hear that from Sherry Birkin, a woman he'd never even met.

"I know," she insisted.

Chris remained stunned but another thought occurred to him. "Wait, that creature out there. Where did it go? What happened after I blacked out?"

Jake shrugged his shoulders, walked over to the door of the place, and pushed it open. The dark of the night was gradually beginning to lift as the day approached.

"See for yourself."

Chris did go out to see and found himself staring at a puddle of black goo not far from the entrance.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Yup. Whole thing up and mostly evaporated into thin air after the three of us managed to take it down. It was actually kind of like it was melting away. Gross stuff. Sherry here swooped in to the rescue. The rest of it splattered into what you see there after. Freaky, but it's just like those other messed up people once you kill them."

"Okay, well we need to locate our people. I have no idea how many more of them could be out there. Leena-"

"Relax, Chris. I found your comm. device and it was still intact. I told them we'd found the target, mission accomplished. Renny said Wesker and the others were working on some clean-up and then they'd be around to extract us. They probably just ran into a bit more than they were expecting. I'm sure they're fine."

She truly seemed to believe what she was saying, which comforted Chris somewhat. As if on cue, the sound of rotating blades cutting rapidly through air reached his ears. The noise was coming closer and he visibly relaxed this time. If only missions always would work out so smoothly.

Chris returned his attention to Sherry. "I understand you work for a different organization and that they only recently let you out into the world, but I think you should take my offer. I won't experiment on you or run tests, and you know Wesker wouldn't let anyone lay a hand on you."

"Wesker?" Jake asked.

"Yeah." Chris looked at him curiously. "Why?"

The other didn't say anything and then Sherry was speaking to him. "Well, Simmons is alright. He tries to do what he can to protect this country like I do. Oh trust me, I'd love to work alongside someone like you though. Someone who I trust to never try and use me... I'll join on a conditional basis."

Chris and Leena looked at one another, then at the young woman, Chris asking what they were both wondering.

"What conditional basis would that be?"

"I'll join as long as Jake can join too. He's a good fighter. Strong and fast because he's been a mercenary since 15. He's special sort of like me. Jake took an injection that turned his fellow mercenary buddies into those things you saw out there while he remained fine. We could use him on our team."

"Well, sheesh, let's just go tell everyone my dirty little secret."

He frowned at Jake. "What was he infected with?"

"No idea. You ever find out, clue me in," the young man told him. "Some bitch said it'd give us more energy. Imagine my surprise when my buds became murderous and came after me, red eyes and all."

Chris sighed tiredly. Great. Some new virus unleashed on the black market. That was the last thing they needed. He wondered if this was Darius's work.

"Yeah? Well imagine their surprise."

He and Jake stared at one another for a long moment. Sherry smiled at them both. "So we're a part of your team?"

"Sure. From here on out you're both part of the team."

The helicopter was landing further down the street from the building they were occupying. Leena seemed all too happy to see it and started for the aircraft with the other three following after her. When they made it to the helicopter, Wesker wasn't there. When Chris asked, all Renny could tell them was that he'd gotten a call about two hours earlier and said he had to go. He would meet them at the airport when they headed to France on the private jet Renny had landed them through a connection of his.

Chris wasn't surprised. He knew Wesker couldn't be trusted. Still, knowing that didn't really upset him any less about the perpetual lying and sneaking off to attend to "private affairs". He kept hoping, against all odds, that Wesker would change, for Eva's sake. Even Eva must have given up on him though, because as far as he knew, she'd cut off all ties with anyone from this life that meant danger and unhappiness for her. That definitely included Wesker. Unfortunately, that included him, too.

Before turning to get on the chopper, he took one last lingering look at the sunrise breaking out across the sky. He liked sunrises because to him it felt like time was giving him another chance. It was about to be a new day and with a new day, there was always the hope that things could get better. And there was nothing wrong with a little hope.


	5. A Typical Day in the Life

_**Chapter 5**_

**-A Typical Day in the Life-**

* * *

><p><em>Present Day<em>

* * *

><p><em>Sterling, Colorado<em>

Generally buildings passed by in a blur for her, but there was something that caught her eye and drew her to it. One of the buildings had a large poster pasted against an entire side of the building and it was of a beautiful sunrise over a nature landscape. 'Don't Let the Sun Rise Over Your Big Savings! Stop in Now, Before Sales End!' The words weren't what held her attention. It was the sunrise. She absolutely loved sunrises. Seeing the sun rise up, sky gradually brightening into day the higher the orb of light got was..well there was nothing like it. To Eva, it felt like a sunrise was telling her it was another day, another chance.

The blaring of a car horn pulled her out of her revery and she jerked the wheel to return to her proper lane. Becoming too absorbed in something else really wasn't a good idea when driving a motorized vehicle. Returning her focus back to the road, she made her way to work, cranking up the radio to make the drive go more quickly.

Arriving, she located her parking spot with the nameplate and all, and parked. The sign read, 'Eva Jane', as though Jane were her last name. She liked it that way. Using her middle name as her last gave her some anonymity, in case anyone ever came prowling around to harm either her or her children. Then it was just a matter of falsifying some government documents and her family was set. After double checking the gun remained easily accessible beneath the driver's seat, the habit one she hadn't been able to break, she grabbed her bag and locked the car before heading into the building. Once inside the glass doors, she waved at the older woman behind the desk and gave a kind smile.

"Hi Janice. How's the new boyfriend?"

"Are you kidding? He's what's keeping me sane in these trying times."

"Oh have a little faith. There are always people out there trying to make things better."

Her eyes shifted to a photograph on the desk. A framed photo that Eva knew contained the picture of her late husband. The man in the picture was young, 25 maybe, while Janice Johnson was an older woman in her 60's. Her husband had died young, killed in combat, fighting to protect his country. The soldier had been _her_ soldier, the love of her life. When he died, even with her heart broken into pieces, she'd never been more proud.

Since his death, Janice Johnson had gone through a series of boyfriends, so much so that she had lost count on the precise number a long time ago. She never slept with any of them and she never promised marriage to any either. Janice had already met her soulmate and for her, there was no one else who could compare. The woman was one of the strongest people Eva had ever met. She had loved and lost and was okay with it as much as she could be.

The boyfriends, Eva figured, were her attempts to deal with loneliness. Though Eva never liked to get into any details about Chris, she'd been willing to share that she too, had had someone whom she deeply loved. Someone who was a soldier who never stopped working to keep the United States free from the fear of viral infection and other terrorist attacks. A man who had married her in secret, gifting her with a precious necklace in place of a wedding ring. A man who had been killed for believing in a future without fear.

"Sweetie? Did you hear what I asked?"

"What? Oh, sorry. Did you say something?"

"You are always zoning out. A sign of a troubled mind. You know, right before I received the news about my husband, my mind was like that. I was always spacey, mind going elsewhere, and all the while I felt there was something off, something not quite right. Then three days later, a military vehicle pulled up to my house and I knew. I realized I had already known."

"Janice, I'm running late so I'd better get inside."

The receptionist glanced at the clock on the wall. Eva still had five minutes before she needed to clock in.

"Go on then, dear. I wouldn't want you to be late."

She gave Janice the most sincere smile she could muster, knowing the woman could see she didn't feel like making small chit chat any longer today. "It's just one of the darker days. I'm sorry, Janice. I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, I'll be speaking with you later then."

Eva walked around the side of the reception desk. Janice shifted in her seat to buzz her in and then she was walking through sliding doors to the security office. She flashed her ID badge, a requirement that was wholly unnecessary considering they saw her walk through those doors on a daily basis. The job as researcher meant long hours and even more devotion. The search for cures against terrible viruses was her way of fighting. This was her method of working to protect her country, and at the same time, it allowed her to keep a little piece of Chris Redfield. It allowed her to keep her mother's memory with her too.

Her mother, Jane Wesker, who was a researcher for Umbrella until she transferred out to get away from what she knew was a bad company of people. A researcher who had wanted to help others. Who had never imagined just how far the corporation she'd worked for would go to test their products and keep people silenced about their illegal activities. She would never really remember her mother, the woman having been murdered when Eva was only a baby, but the picture her father gave her was enough. Eva would hold onto the knowledge she did have about the woman who gave birth to her. The knowledge was all that was left.

"Good morning, Eva."

She smiled and waved in greeting to her friend and co-worker, Joshua Enson. Josh was cute and incredibly charming when he wanted to be. She had even contemplated the idea of them becoming something together because he obviously liked her. Ultimately... Maybe in another life. Eva got the feeling she would end up like Janice Johnson, forever lonely and missing a part of herself.

"Morning, Josh. How goes the efforts to, you know, save the world?"

He grinned at her. "Oh, you know, I do what I can."

After that, the two of them separated and got to work. There would be time for menial chatter at their lunch break. The morning always began the same. Paperwork such as writing reports and reviewing memos for the first hour and a half, then the next three hours were spent on the really mind stretching and grinding tasks of the trial and error that encompassed experimentation and study. To create cures for deadly substances, the substances themselves were required to be present in the lab. Eva didn't like being near any viruses, especially now that she was free of hers. But with what they were trying to do, it was worth the obvious risk it posed, and it was certainly worth her having to be a little uncomfortable.

Finally, lunch rolled around and as she was peering through a microscope. She heard Josh approach from behind. He leaned in to peer over her shoulder.

"Working on anything life-threatening?"

He nudged her shoulder and she gave up on what she was attempting to examine for the time being. She turned to face him, pushing him back from her to get some space between them.

"If I was working on something life-threatening, I'd be in the containment area and you know this."

"Sheesh, only joking, Eva. What's got you bothered today? Little Aly and Donovan giving you more stress than you can handle? Is incredibly tough single motherhood and a full-time job too much work for you? Cause, you know, that sounds like an easy time to me."

Eva fought a smirk and pushed him again. "You wouldn't last a day."

Josh shrugged. "When you're right, you're right. Two is always better than one in these situations."

"Hey, you're welcome to babysit anytime."

His smile slipped a little bit and he became much more serious. "That's not what I meant."

Eva chose to ignore the comment and removed her gloves, disposing them in the container by the door.

"Come on, Josh. Let's go grab some food. I'm starving."

Lunch was always at the same locale, an Italian joint across the street. The place had a variety of pastas and delightfully tasty breadsticks. But the reason the restaurant was very dear to her heart? The joint's pizza was..heavenly. The crust wasn't too thick, not too thin, and fluffy to boot. There was never too much sauce per slice and there was always plenty of gooey, greasy cheese. It might not have been the healthiest meal to eat nearly every single day, but oh well, she had never claimed to be a health nut.

Not a word was spoken between them until they were seated at a table with stools. They'd ordered right away and now awaited the food together. Eva liked to think of this period as a cleansing one, a way for her to excuse the fattening meal she was soon to indulge in. When the order was made, it was a signal things could resume. Hey, she took delicious food seriously.

"So Eva, how have you been lately?"

She mimicked his voice. "So Josh, I've been fine, and you?"

"I'm good, Eva. But don't joke. I'm really asking. You've been..more distant of late."

"Yeah," she breathed, avoiding any actual answer.

Josh was looking at her like he'd really like to tell her how he felt, and what exactly was wrong with such a non-response, but she knew he wouldn't. That was the kind of man he was. A 32-year-old virologist whose superior intelligence and book knowledge combined with Eva's extremely high level of intelligence and personal experience with viruses, made them an excellent duo at working towards potential cures for these viruses. Some cures already existed but many did not, and so this was the task the two of them had been hired to research and hopefully one day solve.

He'd lost a sister to a viral outbreak at an airport in 2005. She recalled the year easily enough because Claire had been at that airport during the incident and told her the whole story of her fight for survival in the place. Losing a sister meant he held a personal stake in this as much as Eva did. Not that she'd told him too much of her own personal history. On the flip-side, he was more than happy to share his life story with her.

Joshua Enson was born in 1986 and spent the majority of his childhood dreaming of being a cowboy. When he reached middle school, he realized it wasn't too realistic of a dream, and his parents and teachers realized how much potential he held when they began to notice his natural genius. A couple of weeks into the sixth grade and he was transferred to a school for gifted children. He took tenth grade level courses. A year later and he was on to twelfth grade level subjects. Six years later and he'd graduated with a double major in biology and mathematics. Another two years and he received his PhD in virology. He was 21 years old. His older sister having died in the time it took him to graduate college, he pursued his studies into viruses at graduate school, so that one day he'd be able to look into the T-Virus that claimed his sister's life.

He was brilliant, handsome, and had the same end goal as she did. Prevent viruses from claiming innocent lives by creating cures for them. He could be head-strong and arrogant at times, but his heart was always in the right place. There were four other siblings in his family and he took time out of his busy work schedule to pay them a visit whenever he could. Two of them, brothers, were still in high school, and the other two, both older, were a lawyer and college professor. The lawyer was a sister and the college professor was another brother.

They'd all felt a whole lot of pain when they lost one of their own at that airport. The whole family got together at least once a year in order to appreciate one another, and Eva, admittedly, was a bit jealous of such a close-knit family so different from her own. Josh was a good man who deserved a loving family and so she was truly happy for him at the same time. They'd become good friends over the years and at least she had that friendship going for herself.

The reason seemed to dawn on him for her refusal to be honest and open with him. "It's that time of year, huh?"

She didn't speak, which was fine, because he appeared more than okay with doing the talking for the both of them.

"Once a year you get like this, distant and anti-social."

She rolled her eyes. "You going to diagnose me, doctor?"

"I'm your friend. I'm trying to help. You spend too much time keeping things to yourself and it's eventually going to come out." He clarified his statement further. "Not in a good way."

"Let's tone down the angst there, Josh."

"Alright, alright. What should we talk about then?"

She didn't answer, instead glancing around the restaurant.

Light shone in through the large picture windows of the building, rays bouncing off of drinking glasses over by the bar area. She took a moment to take in the hustle and bustle on the sidewalk outside. It was just another day in Sterling, Colorado. This was what she had wanted. To be one of the norm and be able to go unnoticed in a regular establishment. And she had kids to boot. Nine years ago the dream had almost felt like a hopeless one. It was all real now. She held a happiness that she never wanted to forget.

"What do you think about the Broncos this year?"

She looked at him. "Football? You're joking."

Josh laughed. "Okay, maybe a little. Books then. Read any good ones lately?"

She grinned. "You know it. I'm actually reading like four different ones right now. The one I think I'd recommend is best, for you, would have to be the one I'm farthest in. It's set in a futuristic society where this kid, fourteen years old, lives in a world where there are very few people left, and this kid has grown up surviving so that world is all he's ever known. He's such an extraordinary person... You would really enjoy it I think."

"I think I might," he said sincerely. "Tell me more."

She smiled and obliged.

After lunch, she finished out the rest of her shift at work and was out the door by six on the dot. She would pick up her children, bring them home, and prepare dinner. This was their daily routine. Routine was something she had grown fond of, after. It kept her occupied, busy, giving her something to plan and focus on. Spontaneity was no longer her thing.

Pulling into her aunt's driveway, she shut off the engine and climbed out. Usually her kids came to meet her at the door but they weren't there this time. She thought about going back to the car to grab the gun under the seat. It took but a second to change her mind. If there was danger, she could take care of it whether she had a gun or not. Six years hadn't made her forget the combat skills her father taught her growing up.

Eva walked through the front door without knocking. She came nearly every day and Natasha would be expecting her. If there was nothing wrong at least. Thankfully her mind had been paranoid for no reason. She found the three of them sitting on the living room floor playing a board game. She smiled fondly at the sight. Natasha loved having a real role in Eva's life again and Eva loved her for it. The four of them were her true family.

"Natasha, how was it?"

"Good. Always good. You know that, hon. And hello to you too."

Laughing a little, she came to stand over by the three.

"I'm glad. We should be going though. I still have to stop by the store before home so I can make dinner."

"Nonsense. You stay here for dinner tonight."

"No, really, I wouldn't impose-"

It was all for naught trying to argue with someone as strong-headed as her aunt.

"I'm already preparing it. You will stay."

"She's making spaghetti!" Donovan exclaimed far too excitedly. The little man enjoyed his food.

She threw up her hands in defeat. "Okay, okay. We'll stay."

Ten minutes later and they were all seated around Natasha's dining room table with steaming plates of sauced noodles in front of them. They ate in silence for a few minutes before Natasha did what she always did. She liked to talk about current events, and unfortunately, the news was typically of a dismal sort.

"Stock prices are down again. It's a good thing I don't trust such investments. Earn your own money and spend your own money, that is the proper way of doing things."

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Eva agreed, for to do otherwise was asking for a long-winded conversation she didn't need.

"Speaking of proper things..."

Eva sighed loudly and mumbled, "Were we now?"

Natasha continued speaking as though her niece had never spoken. "Where is this father of your children? Why does he not wish to see them? Hm? Why?"

She had never told her about Chris or anything at all about the man who should have been these children's father. It was easier not to talk about him. Besides, her aunt wasn't really interested in talking about Chris. She just wanted to point out how Eva wasn't living an appropriate life. A woman with kids should have a husband and that man should be the father of the children. Obviously, life hadn't worked out like that.

"Natasha. Let's talk about something else."

The suggestion didn't seem to bother her at all and she smoothly transitioned into another news topic as though she'd planned to all along.

"These days nothing is for sure. That is why stocks are so dicey. I mean, look at what is happening this past year alone. Those wealthy or prominent people being targeted by those terrorists, whomever they may be. I think these terrorists are looking to seize control of the markets."

"Why would they want to do that?" Eva questioned, humoring her aunt.

"Why to control the funds of course. This country has quite a lot of worth if you know where to look."

"This country is broke."

"Ah nonsense. The government has all the funds it needs to do whatever it wants."

The rest of the time at Natasha's pretty much went like that, with idle chit chat being made and a little bit of talk with the kids as well. Then, it was time to go. A quick goodbye and the three of them were out the door, D and Al continuing to wave at Natasha until they'd made it inside and buckled up in the car. She turned on the radio, playing it softly for her children to listen to on the ride home. They liked soothing sounds as much as she herself favored soothing images such as her sunrises.

Once back home, the trip to the store saved for another day, she hurried the two little ones inside and set about readying them for sleep. It was getting late and Donovan tended not to want to wake in the morning if he didn't sleep long enough. Tomorrow was going to be a full day at work and she wanted to be well rested for it. She sent the pair of them off to brush their teeth and get their pajamas on before going into the kitchen to get a glass of water for herself.

Gentle humming reached her ears from where she stood by the sink and it brought a smile to her lips. It was D. He often hummed to himself while getting ready for bed when he was feeling particularly upbeat. Looks like they'd both had a good day. Nice times like these she would never grow tired of.

Placing the half empty glass on the counter, she made her way to the bathroom to make sure the brushing of teeth was done right. Eva found only Donovan there, awkwardly working the brush in and out of his mouth, but suitable enough to get the job done. Briefly touching Aly's toothbrush to note that it had in fact been recently used, she went back down the hall in search of her youngest. She found the child in the living room, seated pretzel style in front of the television, watching the late night news.

"Supervisor Martin Farcy from the shipping department of the Mercer corporation was found dead last night. Blunt force and a sharp object of some kind were used to kill him. Several of his security employees were found dead as well in the warehouse, and police believe the same terrorist from five separate incidents in the last year to be responsible."

Great, more unhappy news. The kind of news that gave her a knot in her stomach. Eva picked up the remote and switched off the television.

"Time for bed, Al, come on."

Her daughter continued to stare at the now dark screen.

"Aly, you heard me. Let's go."

"I like it here."

"What do you mean?"

"I like it here, mommy. I don't want to go."

"You can't stay there all night. Come to bed."

"Someone's coming to see us."

"Who?" Then she remembered. "Oh that's right. Leon and Claire are coming to see us in a couple of days. It's just dinner. No big deal. Why would you think that would change anything?"

Aly didn't say anything. Quietly, she stood up in her dark blue pjs and wished her mother good night.

She watched as her daughter went on down the hallway towards her bedroom and then shut off the living room light. There was a flash of a different sort of light across the large window pane. It was only a car passing on the street but it made her think of lightning. There had been a storm that night.

_The police precinct was chilly and only vaguely did she take in the murmurs of two police detectives and several agents discussing the case. Eva sat by one of the windows, staring out at the rain coming down outside. The rain was pouring down, the night cold and dark. Dark except for the intermittent bouts of lightning flashes. She watched the window, the wet drops pattering against the glass. Slowly, she lifted her hand from where it had rested on the round bump of her stomach that gradually grew bigger as the weeks passed. She took her hand and placed it palm first, fingers spread, against the window. Her eyes swept past her fingers to look through the window, as though she could see someone out there, someone leaving. _

_Over six months since Chris had gone missing. Over six months of fruitless searching. There was never anyone to find. She just hadn't wanted to admit it to herself. Didn't want to be alone with the child growing inside of her. Didn't want to be alive without him with her. The truth of the dismal situation she had denied. A long ago cold case that had left one dead and the other listed as missing. Now the file would be official and state two had been murdered. The time for hope was over. It was time to let Chris go. He'd been killed six months ago and she refused to believe that truth until now. _

_"It's time."_

_All of them abruptly ceased their discussion and turned to look at her. One of the agents came to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. _

_"Eva, time for what?"_

_She didn't bother to move at all to see Leon standing just behind her. She repeated what she had said before and left it at that, knowing that he would understand what she meant. _

_"It's time." _


	6. Conviction

_**Chapter 6**_

**-Conviction-**

* * *

><p><em>Eight Years Earlier<em>

* * *

><p><em>Belfort, France<em>

"It's time! Let's gear up and head out!" Chris called to the others, pausing in his own tracks in order to regard one of the newest members of his team.

Jake Muller never had an easy life, and after hearing all about Chris's tough living and troubles, he'd told his own story. Jake's mother was a lovely woman who emigrated to the United States in her early twenties. She met a handsome stranger with perfect hair and an accent. Oh, yeah, and the interminable habit of wearing a pair of black sunglasses. The recently turned nineteen-year-old was Albert Wesker's son. The evil man had procreated.

Never did he think of Albert Wesker as a man to have a family. But he did. He married a woman named Jane, who gave birth to baby Eva. Never did he think of Albert Wesker to have even one kid, let alone two. But Jake was his second child and only apart from Eva in age by about nine or so months (a few more months gone by where Eva never aged made the age difference a tad more complicated to calculate precisely).

Apparently he'd mourned his murdered wife in a peculiar way, sleeping with a young foreign woman. Wesker didn't love the woman and it didn't take long for him to leave her in the wind, not knowing she was pregnant. She returned to her home country to give birth to a son who would not have a father. Wesker... Asshole.

Unfortunately, Jake's mother had a chronic illness which kept her from working, making it difficult to raise her son in Edonia. As soon as he was old enough, Jake took a job as a soldier of fortune, a mercenary, in order to purchase the medicine his mother needed. Throughout his childhood, his mother continued to be enamored by Albert Wesker, her one time lover. A fact Jake never understood since the man abandoned her. His efforts as a mercenary proved to be for nothing, for his mother succumbed to her illness before he could raise the money to save her.

He continued the rough life he had as a mercenary, the only thing he ever chose to care about any more being money. Jake worked for an Eastern European mercenary faction and was on a job to protect a town near Edonia, for a price, when he came across a young woman. The woman was an agent for the DSO (Division of Security Operations), on a mission to locate and protect the son of Albert Wesker. This is when he learned the reason he never got sick. His father had been experimented on as a young child and his DNA became..irregular. That irregular DNA was passed on to Jake, becoming immune to most, if not all, viruses. She knew this because she was special herself, taken in by her now boss, Director of DSO, Derek Simmons, as a twelve-year-old child in 1998. And Sherry Birkin was indeed a special woman. Her superb ability to heal serious wounds rapidly because of her infection with the G-Virus and subsequent vaccination to cure her of it, made her so.

Sherry told him about her father William Birkin, and how he was his father's friend and colleague for years. Although her father was really dead, unlike Jake's, who was only believed dead by most. Admittedly impressed by her honesty and blunt way of speaking, he shared with her about this latest mission and why he was alone. A woman came to them, wearing a red coat, to provide injections that the leader of their faction had purchased. The injections were to boost their energy and strength, but instead it morphed them all into monsters. All of them mutated into killing machines Jake had to take out when the injection had no effect on him whatsoever. Well, no negative effect. His body could very well now contain anti-bodies to this dangerous new virus.

Chris never thought he would think himself lucky but he did. His life had never truly been great by any means. Parents were killed in a car crash when he was still basically a kid, causing him to have to assume the role of parent to his little sister, and he was pushed out of the Air Force for having "problems with authority". The life he lived hadn't become incredibly tough until he was 25, the night of the mansion incident as a member of a special law enforcement team, S.T.A.R.S. So over the years the casualties had continued to mount during his period of..transitioning; from a law-abiding soldier of the government fighting bio-terrorism to a vigilante practically doing the same thing, then from human to something not quite.

It was amazing how focused Wesker suddenly became after Jake and Sherry joined the team. His repeated visits away from the group to a place or places unknown abruptly halted. There wasn't exactly an optimism and excitement to him. The guy never seemed "thrilled", well, ever. But there was one moment of progress for Chris with his long time ago former boss. He seemed to have accepted Chris as the appointed leader of their little posse and his own role on the team. This made him at least somewhat happier considering he'd learned from Billy Coen that Wesker had disappeared for the majority of the mission to find Sherry Birkin, once he received a phone call. Where Wesker went? No one knew and he suspected more investigation on his part would be required if he ever hoped to learn what the other had been up to over the past year.

The whole missing Eva thing came a lot easier to handle with Sherry and Wesker's son around. It was like Sherry was his replacement daughter, cruel as that sounded, the way he watched over her and regarded her during their interactions off and on missions. But Wesker treating Sherry like she was his own blood, wasn't truly the reason it was easier. The reason came from their ages. Both were young, and it reminded him how young Eva was. She was a teenager. Eighteen!

He couldn't possibly be in love with someone half his age, therefore he must not be in love. She was eighteen, so legal, but still so wrong. It made him feel better realizing how foolish his belief that he could possibly be in love with Eva Wesker was. Now she was gone, to go and live her own life, as it should be. Taking Eva out of the equation, Sherry and Jake kept Wesker grounded and he knew they would prove very beneficial to the team as long as this change in a bad man continued.

Almost a year gone by since Belfort had been initially wiped off the map and now they traveled to it for the first time, upon news activity had been detected in the ruined city. Four days after hearing this news, they'd finally prepared enough to head into an area outside the French city. A city bombed into annihilation nearly one year ago. There were several buildings miles from the ruined city, a complex more like, and Chris suspected this could possibly be where the latest deadly virus was created. If they found the origins of the virus, they could destroy it and maybe even Greene in the process. Though Darius excelled at disappearing so he could also very well be long gone since the city had been destroyed.

Chris resumed his quick walking pace beside Leena, pausing to glance sideways at Wesker walking a little ways off to his right. Ever since their two newest members agreed to join, Wesker kept Sherry Birkin in his sights at all times. Right now Chris was watching him observing Sherry and Jake, who walked close together ahead of the group. Rebecca was with them, her usual shy nature as an eighteen-year-old having given way to a much more mature and talkative 29-year-old self. At the moment she was working at prying out any details she could from Sherry, a former resident of Raccoon City once upon a time, like herself. She was doing it in the manner only girls could, talking about herself and then promptly asking the younger girl a question or making a leading comment to incite a response.

She wasn't that smooth though, and from what Chris could tell, Sherry wasn't giving up much. They were getting along and that was certainly something. Jake appeared, at most, amused, and simply listened as the two girls chattered along the hike to the complex. No matter. The buildings began to loom ahead. The start of the mission was upon them.

"Why are we thinking Greene will be here again? Why do we think this is the original lab that creepy virus was made?"

Chris turned back to regard Renny and Billy. It was Renny who was asking all the questions, when usually it was Billy showing skepticism and disbelief in their over-all mission to stop Darius Greene and his terrorism.

"Wesker. He says all signs point to," Chris pointed to the first building dead ahead. "So here we are, looking to make trouble for a troublesome man."

"Darius Greene? Yes, well, sorry if I don't accept a deux ex machina solution to this Greene situation."

"Hmm..." A pleased smile came to Wesker's face. That was never good in Chris's book. "A reference to me as a god, without my own prompting. Interesting."

He restrained himself from growling out some kind of response to Wesker's mention of seeing himself as a god, and focused his attention to Renny.

"Fine. Because as much as it pains me to say, Wesker is a smart man. He dug up coordinates, coordinates that trace back to where viral attacks have happened. These same coordinates were also retrieved from the Umbrella lab in Aurora I told you about. The one with the time machine monstrosity or whatever you'd like to call it. Recent activity has been occurring in this exact spot of late according to his surveillance."

"Oh, well why didn't you say that in the first place?"

Chris shrugged. "The other way was easier. Wesker, all knowing."

He'd said the last part very sarcastically and the man he mentioned actually looked a bit disgruntled by his words. His head tilted towards Chris, lips downturning at the corners, red eyes glowing through dark lenses. He knew Wesker had not forgotten how there was a time when he would like nothing more than to see Chris in pain. Yet day after day passed with them in one another's company, not clawing at each other's throats. It was a change, one Wesker apparently was not used to. He couldn't say he exactly was used to it either.

"Chris, we should split up."

Leena had said it to bring their minds off of one another, back to the mission at hand. Probably for the best. He hated Wesker. How could he be asked to work with the man who was directly responsible for the death and suffering of so many? Well, there was that daughter of his... Not going there.

"Right. There are three buildings. Wesker, go with Sherry and your son to the outer left building, Renny, Billy, and Rebecca take the outer right building. Leena and I will head for the central one."

Jake grimaced. "I wouldn't exactly call him dear old dad."

But he moved along in his appointed direction with the man anyway.

As Chris moved along in his own direction, he took further note of the building he approached. The building wasn't too old. In fact, he'd say it was built in the last year or so. As he made it close enough to place a palm against the smooth, hard surface, he could see there were no scratches or signs of aging whatsoever. There were no windows either.

"Strange design, don't you think?" Leena remarked, seeing what he could see.

His response came immediate. "Not for Umbrella."

She glanced sharply in his direction. "What do you mean? Umbrella Corporation is gone. You told me that."

"It is. But when it comes to Darius Greene, it's the same thing."

Leena brushed her bangs from in front of her eyes. "Great."

"We handled Umbrella. We can handle Darius, too."

As he tried the set of double-doors at the front and found it unlocked, she spoke as she followed him inside.

"You're so confident. How can you be sure?"

Chris took his first steps into the entryway of the building. It was a room that appeared to be like any typical sort of reception area. Directly ahead there was a circular shaped desk and several shelves behind it. Portraits hung along the walls periodically and there were unlit lights, fashioned like old wall lamps. The floor was in shades of gray tile, the walls an off white color. In other words, the place was dull, plain.

"I spent most of my life fighting Umbrella. If there's one thing I've learned from it, power tends to turn people insane. Insane people are easier to beat."

"Some might say your certainty of victory is overconfidence that may very well lead to your downfall."

"Some people?"

She looked uncomfortable. "Well, I heard Wesker saying it to his son. Jake didn't want to listen, if that makes it better somehow."

Chris laughed, eyes scanning the dark place. "Let Wesker say what he wants. Okay, which way?"

Sudden light illuminated the room. He glanced about himself in surprise and found Leena grinning. She stood in front of an open gray box. It was a circuit box and with a couple switches flipped, she'd managed to return power to the building. Slinging the strap of her favored rifle over her shoulder, she glanced around to take in what there was to see.

Leena Goessing was a good partner. She knew what she was doing and handled herself well when it came to unexpected circumstances during the course of a mission. It was a good thing then, too, that she hated seeing innocent civilians being hurt or killed just as much as he did. In some ways, she reminded him of all the years he spent with Jill Valentine as his partner and close friend. He missed her as if she had merely died yesterday.

"Wow... I wonder what this place was used for."

With light returned to the foyer, they could see how nice the room actually was. Everything was very fancy and very expensive. There was also a certain artistic touch to the place. Someone had taken great care to make the interior hospitable, friendly even.

"I don't know... Nothing good I'm sure."

"You wouldn't be able to tell that by looking at this place."

Chris didn't bother replying and instead started for a closed door on his right. He tested it, finding the door unlocked. The place appeared abandoned but they would take precautions in case appearances turned out to be deceiving. The room they entered was a room with a long table, several armchairs, a sofa, and flowers. It was a waiting area. For what, he couldn't quite figure. The flowers were dying, withering and blackening in their pots. Either the building was truly abandoned or their horticultural practice had fallen to the wayside.

After trotting to the next doorway, he spotted a short hall and several doors beyond. Behind door number one, an office, empty and filled with nothing of interest that they could see. The opening of a second door led to a small bathroom. Someone was hunched over, forehead to the tile floor. A woman in a modest flowery dress knelt, cradling her head in her hands. Possibly the receptionist of the front desk they'd seen upon entry?

"Excuse me, ma'am, are you okay?"

Leena got down on one knee beside the woman. "Ma'am?"

"Careful, Leena."

She glanced backwards over her shoulder at him and that was when the woman lunged. The woman's hands locked onto Leena's shoulders and dug in. Her eyes were red, skin pale, except for the skin of the neck and part of her chest which had reddened, potentially when she'd clawed at her own skin. Pushing Leena, she toppled into a seated position with a startled yelp, and became even more surprised when the woman pushed at her vest in order to gain easier access to her throat.

"Ah, help!"

Chris placed the tip of his handgun against the side of the woman's head and blew the skull apart in a single burst. Taking a step back, he returned the gun to its holster and extended a hand toward his partner. She accepted and he pulled her to her feet.

"Careful. The infection must have spread here as well. Like the French town, like the one outside Edonia."

"Great... Do you think this place was attacked too?"

/

"I believe the viral leak was intentional."

"Yeah? Where's your proof?" Jake skeptically asked of his father.

Wesker shifted in his stance by a podium to regard his son, who clearly didn't care to have anything much to do with him. He planned to keep a very close eye on his newfound son, and of course the daughter of his old friend. Chris had been right when the two exchanged a brief conversation the day they both discovered the existence of Jake Muller, biological child of his truly. The former BSAA agent said Wesker had had no idea he'd even had another child and he hadn't. There were a few weeks with a young woman about nineteen years ago. They'd found companionship together for a time and then he moved on. Things to plan and do and all that. Besides, he would only ever love one woman and she'd been taken from him by Umbrella long ago.

He extended a gloved hand toward the projector at the center of what was obviously a large conference room. The room reminded him a little of the conference center he had frequented inside the training facility James Marcus had run when he was a fresh recruit of Umbrella Corporation. He rose up from recruit to head researcher in a short amount of time, eventually becoming quite the ruthless and self-serving man. Yes, even he admitted the kind of man he became when he injected himself with an experimental virus. An injection given to him by his now deceased friend, William Birkin. Later dying at the hands of a tyrant, he resurrected with a cold heart and a determination to extinguish Umbrella in order to see a new future.

"This is a research facility and not simply an administrative building as the architects wanted people to believe when they made this place. I used to work in a building vaguely similar to this design. Turn on the projector and I suspect you shall have your proof."

Jake didn't look like he wanted to do anything Wesker told him and so it was Sherry who ended up walking over to switch on the projector. Unlike Jake, she was willing to deal with Wesker if it meant getting the answers she needed. He found himself intrigued by such an individual. She was a strong woman, who, though inexperienced, was willing to put herself in harm's way to keep others safe and to find answers. She spoke her mind and did whatever it took to see the mission through. Claire Redfield. Sherry Birkin made him think of Claire Redfield. Ah, he would be perpetually surrounded by people like the Redfields.

Once the switch was flipped, a video with audio came on and the three of them moved around to get a clear view of the large screen. There were several men in white lab coats, along with a single woman Wesker recognized as Dr. Mya Sheppard. She had worked for Umbrella and he'd believed her to have perished in the Umbrella labs inside the Aurora facility. The video was a little blurry but she appeared no worse for wear on the film. Another man walked into view of the camera and he knew this man too. Darius Greene was unmistakably that man. The terrible scars on his face made him easily recognizable despite the change into civilian clothing of a dress shirt and black slacks.

_"The test was a success. The target is immune to the C-Virus. No side effects were witnessed while his..current associates submitted almost immediately."_

Wesker was genuinely surprised. He hadn't expected this partnership. The composed and straight to business tone belonged to an agent for hire he'd used before. Ada Wong's image briefly flashed across the screen as the camera moved to her and then back over to the pair for whom she was providing the information. Black pants and a deep red shirt, Ada Wong it was indeed.

_"Yet you were unable to retrieve him. You failed in your mission."_

_"The situation became complicated. Chris Redfield and his friends showed up and discovered the target before I was able to extract him. Another was there as well. Sherry Birkin."_

_"You don't say... The young lady is supposed to be a special one..."_

Darius seemed distracted from his thoughts and turned from Ada to look at something else. Something that the camera was zooming in on now as everyone in the bright white room was moving to get a good look. A ghastly wail filled the room as what had once been the prone form of a man began to morph and change, mutating into something rather other than human. What was once a regular man, stood now at least seven feet tall with extremely pale skin. It had a muscular build with arms and legs that appeared abnormally lengthy. The hands had long fingers with sharp claws instead of fingernails, the head was bald, and the back was covered in hard scales all the way from the neck on down to the swishing tail moving to and fro.

A horrific scream filled the lab and the scientists were looking a little tense and freaked out by the creature inside the cage. The scaly tail slammed against the bars but they didn't bend. Undoubtedly the bars were some kind of reinforced metal designed to keep experiments such as it in.

_"Interesting..but not exactly what I had in mind. We may need a better source. Thank you for your services, Ms. Wong. We'll no longer be requiring them. I plan to use an old employer of yours in the next stage of this game, and surely you will have no desire to be anywhere near him after your less than amicable departure."_

_"Fine by me. Have fun with your toy." _

_"Oh I intend to."_

The film cut out, ending abruptly, and still Jake didn't seem satisfied by what they had just seen.

"Yeah? So? How'd you even know there was going to be something on that video?"

Wesker's face remained impassive as he picked up a typed sheet of paper resting on the podium and read it to his son and Sherry.

"December 29th, 2009. Tyrant model T-007, nicknamed Ghoul by its resemblance to the creature of myth. Ghoul was created through the combination of the R-Virus Variant and the T-Virus. Although the intended outcome of the experiment was a failure, Ghoul poses a usefulness as a bioweapon. It is controllable, intelligent, and deadly. Since its birth, it has grown from seven feet to ten feet tall and continues to increase in size daily. A new housing unit for the creature has been arranged and it has been frozen in order to cease growth."

"Look out!" Sherry yelled in warning.

Wesker shifted slowly to peer over his shoulder and casually grabbed hold of the creature's head, snapping the neck and kicking the thing out of balance. The zombified male dropped and he took the opportunity to crush its skull with the heel of his boot. Over by the projector, Jake swung around and fired a couple shots into another one of the walking dead after having raised itself up from an unseen spot behind one of the conference desks.

"Well, these shuffling sideshows are a piece of cake. Let's just hope we don't run into that thing we saw on the video."

"Here we go again." Sherry said with a laugh. "In Edonia we ran into that enormous infected creature and now there's this latest creation. We can only hope we'll be lucky enough not to come across it."

"Yup. So..where do we search next? You know, to find _actual_ proof that the viral leak was intentional."

"Tedious."

"What was that?" Jake demanded of his father.

Sherry sighed. How did she end up with this father-son duo? She prayed the mission wouldn't take too long to get through. It already looked like they'd uncovered what they needed anyway. This place was likely responsible for the city's outbreak. The only questions now, were why, and whether or not a similar attack would happen again.


End file.
